Photo taken by contributor Carrie Hilgert, a photographer and painter from Northeast Kansas who has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. After venturing into digital photography, she became interested in documenting her life with self portraits. This became particularly helpful when her life started to fall apart due to depression. All her other creative outlets left her, but she could always process her very dark feelings with self portraits. While she is doing much better now, she maintains compassion for those going through these hard things and hopes that her photography can give an honest insight into something that makes most people feel very isolated and alone.
About this photo: “Usually the depression is worse during the winter months but this year I upped my vitamin D and had a much better season. However, there were a few days I literally thought I was going to die if I didn’t see some green soon. We had a lot of late storms that just hit me right in the gut. I felt trapped and a bit mental for awhile. Every new late winter storm was like a bullet to my brain. I wanted to capture that desperation in the image.”
Find more from Carrie at her blog or flickr.
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Broken Light Collective 
Your image portrays what you are going through. I find it very compelling. The peeling paint & exposed windows really amplify. My house hasn’t been painted in years.
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Stunning photo that captures something deep down within I think.
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You captured the feeling well. I also upped my vitamin D this winter. I struggle with SAD as well as my regular depression. This was a rough winter with the bitter cold and all the snow.
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Picture says it all!
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